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Case Study: Independent Availability Audit Powers Profitability for Wind Farm Owner

A detailed, independent audit helped the Gweedore Wind Farm owners dispute availability discrepancies during equipment issues caused by bearing failures, claiming back additional funds.

Independent availability audits can help wind farm owners uncover hidden profits

Client:

Gweedore Wind Farm, Donegal

Requirements:

The team at Gweedore Wind Farm required biannual reporting on performance and availability. They also needed to ensure optimal uptime and availability for the site.

Solution:

Biannual independent reporting on performance and availability from EnergyPro has helped Gweedore Wind Farm to save money, realise compensation swiftly, and quickly find and resolve discrepancies and inconsistencies in availability.


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For wind farm owners looking to boost profitability, maximising uptime and increasing availability is imperative. So when Gweedore Wind Farm in County Donegal began experiencing extended downtime as a result of equipment failures, it needed independent help to investigate the situation.


Gweedore had already been receiving monthly reports from their operations and maintenance (O&M) provider, focused on the performance and availability of its turbines. However, when faced with trying to recover losses through its availability warranty, independent support from renewable energy asset management specialist, EnergyPro, proved invaluable for the team.


Thanks to the expert insights provided by the EnergyPro team, Gweedore was able to push back on discrepancies with their O&M provider, and settle the claim with an accurate availability calculation.


Managing Director of Gweedore Wind Farm, Eoghan Gillespie, takes up the story: "Initially, we brought EnergyPro on board to support us during our expansion in 2019," he explained. "During this initiative, we increased from 8 turbines with an output capacity of 5MW, to a total of 13 turbines capable of generating 23MW. Including the new Vestas V105 turbine equipment, civil engineering and grid connection, the project cost around €28 million in total.


"Inevitably, with such a substantial investment, we had commitments to the bank, who were seeking a biannual report on performance and availability as part of our facility agreement. That's when we commissioned EnergyPro to support us with a regular report on asset site data."


Independent Reports


With more than 20 years' experience in helping wind farm owners optimise turbine performance, EnergyPro was more than able to assist Gweedore in their reporting needs. Our forensic analysis of asset data often results in improved performance and reduced grid losses for clients. Reports can be used to assess commercial, financial and technical issues including site yield, revenue and availability, using independent data to highlight alarms and recurring component failures for investigation.


Eoghan Gillespie continued: "EnergyPro provides a fantastic service for us. Every six months, Lughaidh Ó Broin delivers an independent report that complements our own data and helps us verify availability.


"Through our agreement with turbine manufacturer, Vestas, we have access to the Vestas Online Business portal. This ensures we can access turbine-specific data, so we are able to download this and produce our own monthly report on availability.


"Vestas also provide their own monthly report and with the AOM 5000 contract in place, we have an energy-based availability guarantee designed to optimise output by scheduling service and maintenance during low-wind periods. When availability falls below the contracted 97%, however, having access to EnergyPro's independent data reports makes all the difference."


Investigating Availability


During a discrepancy between Gweedore and its O&M provider, for example, EnergyPro was on hand to verify availability data. When asked to independently assess the O&M provider's availability figures, EnergyPro calculated a far lower sum.


What's more, during discussions with the provider, EnergyPro was able to represent Gweedore and provide additional evidence that ultimately resulted in Gweedore Wind Farm being paid liquidated damages approximately €51k higher than originally calculated.


"Working with EnergyPro's Lughaidh Ó Broin has been instrumental in saving us money," Eoghan explained. "When you consider that a difference in availability of just 1% is equivalent to €20,000 for us, his expertise is really invaluable in reinforcing our case."


This was particularly true during a recent spate of equipment failures in the company's newer turbine equipment. Despite being just 5 years old, Gweedore experienced several major component failures in its new turbines, all related to the main shaft bearing.


"As a result, one of our turbines was down for seven months," Eoghan explained, "while another was derated from 3.6MW to 1MW for a duration of around eight months. Now, other turbines are experiencing similar issues, and the bearings will need to be replaced. As you can imagine, availability has been seriously impacted.


"Fortunately, EnergyPro's detailed availability audit delivered the information we needed to resolve the conflict and realise compensation swiftly."


Detailed Audit Service


As Eoghan explained, EnergyPro's expertise has been instrumental in resolving discrepancies and inconsistencies in availability. Not only does this make for a better financial picture, it can also result in more diligent maintenance from an O&M provider to maintain availability and ensure optimum turbine performance.


"We always want to ensure we get the availability stated." Eoghan explained. "With EnergyPro's availability audit we have the tools to do that, especially when there are issues with equipment failure.


Vestas often focus on breakdowns or alarms, which is useful, but in fact this isn't the only factor. Lughaidh's audit always gives us the full picture."


As a further benefit, EnergyPro can also help clients to make an insurance claim. In Gweedore's case for example, EnergyPro was able to compile and submit a claim to the underwriter along with supporting data. Despite the fact that the underwriter counter-submitted a substantial quantity, EnergyPro's detailed data and renewables expertise saved the day.


After examining the underwriter's work, EnergyPro placed a further counterclaim, ultimately clawing back €30,000. Without EnergyPro's expertise, it's clear that Gweedore would not have received sufficient compensation, which is why the wind farm operator is keen to keep EnergyPro on board as it looks to the future.


Supporting Future Growth


"We're extremely happy with the EnergyPro availability audit service, which we use to verify calculations when there is a discrepancy," Eoghan concluded. "We've been using EnergyPro for over four years now for our regular biannual reporting and in the last two years, they have also taken over our accounting, so we would certainly recommend them. Looking to the future, we might even hand over the whole asset management role to them."


As Eoghan revealed, Gweedore is likely to continue to have demand for EnergyPro services in the coming years as the company looks to replace its original turbines installed in 1997.


Eoghan commented: "At 28 years old these turbines have been reliable, but their output capacity is lower than today's designs. We have planning permission to repower our original turbines and change them out for newer technology. Currently, the output is just below 5MW and we expect to increase that to 13.5MW.


"Unfortunately, our primary concern here in Northwest Donegal is the level of curtailment. It's running at around 14% right now, but between now and 2030, curtailment is expected to reach 30%."


With increased curtailment on the cards, Gweedore expect availability to continue to give rise to discrepancies. Just as it has to date, EnergyPro's detailed availability audit is expected to provide key data which will increase returns for Gweedore.


"Curtailment could have a serious impact on our financial plans," Eoghan explained, "so EnergyPro's audit will be essential moving forward. It equips us with vital independent data that we just can't afford to be without."


To learn more about how our availability audit may benefit your asset management, get in touch with our expert team today.

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